Declaration of Land for the Census of 302 A. D.

Description

The document contains eleven declarations of land for the census of the year 302 A.D. All are of the same day (Thoth 26), this being the date preserved in five of the eleven columns, with a portion of the date in other columns. The eleven declarations are from Karanis, Arsinoe and Ptolemais Nea, but the plots declared are without exception about the village of Ptolemais Nea. The head of the census is the same Septimius Sabinus who had charge of the work in that none five years earlier (see P.Corn. 19 = P.Corn. inv. no II 30).;The census was instituted in accordance with an imperial decree which was sent abroad over Egypt by order of the catholicos, at that time being Valerius Euethius. The first step was a declaration made by landowners and landholders to the censitor of all the taxable land held by them. In our document the primary declaration had been made a short time before, as appears from the phrase "apo tes apographeises up' emou proen epi Sabeino kensitori". The next move was taken by the goverment officials. The land reported as "chersos" or "adespotos" was checked over by the bureau of the landmeasurer ("anametretes"). In our document this occured in the month Thoth at the height of the flood season. The investigation was designed to determine what amount of the land reported by individuals as "dry" or "ownerless" should actually be classified as seed land ("en spora" or "sporime ge"). The peasant landowner or landlord was held responsible both for correct measurement and for declaration of the gain of the goverment resulting from the substitution of "seed land" for the "dry" and "tenantless" amounts primarily reported.;It is at this point that the action and report envisaged in the present Cornell papyrus. Accompanied by three recognised surveyros ("geometrai"), the peasant owner or tenant had measured the "chersos" and "adespotos" portions of his plots which the goverment had designated as probably transferable to the classification of "basilike ge sporime". Note that in all these cases the landmeasurer had meantime "found" that the land was seed land. Three village officials accompanied the peasant owner or tenant and the three surveyors. These were the boundary official ("oriodeiktes"), the village headman ("meizon tes komes") and the village chief ("komarches"). Upon agreement reached by them the tenant declared under imperial oath the amount of his land which was to be transferred from the classification of ownerless goverment land to the higher production category of "royal seedd land" (with higher rate of rent) or from the category of private dry land to that of private seed land (with corresponding increase in the land tax).;Egypt had been the scene of serious disturbance during the suppression of the revolt of L.Domitius Domitianus (Achilleus) in A.D. 295-296 A.D. In A.D. 302 the situation was so acute that Diocletian diverted a part of the grain which normally went to Rome for the relief of Alexandria. For the census of the year 302 special inducements must have been offred to the peasants to take abandoned goverment land. The nature of these inducements we cannot know. Their results, hoever, are apparent in this census roll.